The Enchantress

1. Birth

Heavy rain could be heard as the sky was rattling with lightning. The city of Hrishikesh was getting wet as the visitors, who had come to take the blessings of mother Ganga were feeling afraid of the rising waters.

A man was scrambling as he held his heavily pregnant wife and successfully hoisted her up the stairs. She had gone in the water to pray and before she knew, the water level was beyond what she could handle.

"Did your wishes get fulfilled now? What was the need to come here when you are about to go into labour?" the man grumbled worriedly but concern was evident on his features.

If she was not this heavily pregnant, he could have tried lifting her, like he had lifted her when they had visited Jejuri together after they were newly married.

Jejuri is a pilgrimage site in Maharashtra. Couples visit there after their marriage to seek the blessings of the lord KhandobA and his two wives, MhAlsA and BAnubai. Khandoba is considered as the incarnation of the main Hindu deity Shiva (the destroyer deity) and Mhalsa and Baanu Bai showed two different aspects of Shakti (consort of Shiva, the destroyer deity).

When newly married couples visit there, the norm is that the new husband would lift his bride and ascend the first eleven steps of the total steps, which were two hundred.

Mahesh had lifted his new wife IndrayAni in the same way. It was difficult but he did it. However, right now, he was afraid that he would drop her and harm her as well as the child inside her.

"I-I think my water broke," Indrayani said, holding her stomach as tears ran down her eyes. Mahesh instantly panicked and screamed, "HELP! ANYBODY HELP!"

However, everyone was too busy running helter skelter but a sage came in front of the couple and offered, "I was a doctor before I decided to give up the society. My name is Sushruta and I might be able to help."

Maybe it was the fact that he said that he was a doctor or it could be because his name was Sushruta or maybe because they had no time but it could also be a combination of all these. Whatever the reason was, they agreed.

Sushruta was the name of the sage who had written Sushruta Samhita. He used to be a healer who had also done research on how to perform various complex surgeries and other astonishingly accurate medical details. His books and research were so accurate that he was known as the father of surgery in the present age.

The sage quickly guided them to his abode. It was a small Terra cotta hut, the walls plastered with cow dung. It was not the ideal surrounding for a delivery but this had to be done. Besides, that's how children were delivered since the ancient time.

He asked Mahesh to take the pots from the ground where water was dripping from his hut and warm them. After a lot of efforts, Mahesh was successful in igniting the fire in the heavy rain as Sushruta was tending to the wife.

Mahesh wished he could have known the gender of the baby but determination of the baby's gender before birth was an illegal act in India. That was because the parents would abort the foetus if the gender was female and that imbalanced the gender ratio to a considerable degree. How he wished that everyone saw daughters as they were, as Goddesses!

After a few hours, the hut was filled with cries of a baby as the mother was passed out. Mahesh thanked to God that it could be a normal delivery because c-section would have complicated things further or could lead to one or two deaths and he absolutely didn't want that.

"It's a girl and the mother is safe too," Sushruta announced cheerfully to an almost unconscious Mahesh. Mahesh woke up with a start, looking at the girl. Even though she was smeared in blood, it was like she was transparent. He could see the major veins on her body. She had small brown hair on her head. However, there seemed to be a golden glow emanating from her small form.

The sage smiled and mumbled, "I will go and bath her in the waters of holy Ganga and bring her to you. The mother is stable too and I have cleaned her up with a clean cloth. You can go inside and see her but let her rest for now."

Mahesh nodded and entered the hut eagerly as he saw his wife sleeping on a thin mattress on the hard ground. The floor was spread with hay. When he went closer and touched the hay, he winced.

He could have afforded a good hospital for the delivery of his daughter. However, his wife had decided that she wanted to visit Hrishikesh before she gave birth and it led to this. He sat beside her as he noticed the sweat on her forehead.

With a gentle smile, he took a clean cloth and wiped her forehead, pecking it as he mumbled, "Thank you for coming in my life and gifting me with a daughter Indrayani. This is the second happiest day of my life, the happiest being the day I married you."

The sage returned to the hut, the bundle of the baby in his hands as he handed her carefully to his father. Smiling, Sushruta said, "You should be thankful that she was born here. Fate doesn't allow this often to those who live outside the city. She is a beautiful girl. The time of her birth was 2:05 AM. I will visit a Pandit Ji (Hindu priest) and see what should be the first letter of the name of the child."

Mahesh joined his hands, eyes tearing up with gratefulness as he said emotionally, "I'm really thankful for your help. I want to pay you, whatever the price, just tell it."

The sage smiled and shook his head no, muttering, "I don't want more than I need," and then left to visit the Pandit Ji (priest) who was his friend. A Pandit Ji is a Hindu priest. He is supposed to know how to invoke the deity in an idol, turning it from stone to a murti. He is also supposed to know how to take care of the murti, how to perform different religious ceremonies like yajnyas (which also included marriages, cremation) along with astrology and so on.

A sudden sound of a water drop stiffened Mahesh. He looked around to find that in the centre of the hut, there was an earthen vessel kept which was collecting the water dripping from the roof.

He focused his attention on the girl in his hands. Looking at his phone, he observed that it was quarter past two in the morning. The girl looked very fragile but very beautiful. He observed that she was fairer than most Indians and maybe fairer than many people from those foreign countries.

Her eyes were now open, allowing him to look at her eyes. They were hazel coloured, a colour that is seen in India but it is very rare. Children of this skin tone would probably get various skin diseases under India's unforgiving sun. That's why nature has gifted Indians with brown skin.

He heard the door open as he looked up to see the sage, Sushruta from before. Sushruta had a wide smile on his face as he told Mahesh, "The Pandit Ji (priest) told me that it would be appropriate to name the girl from the letter M. The name he suggested was Mahāmāyā. However, you can keep any other name from M."

The name means a huge mirage. The world iss often called as Mahamaya because it stops humans from seeing the ultimate reality. It was a beautiful name. He would definitely consult his wife on keeping the same name or they would browse other names on the internet starting from M. Mahamaya also means Shakti (divine feminine) when she dissolves to form the world.

He joined his hands and bowed a little as he said, "No matter how many times I thank you, it would never be enough. You have helped us a lot."

The sage smiled and kept his hand on Mahesh's head, smiling, blessing him...

A/N:
Fun fact: Sushruta gifted the world with modern surgery processes but they were not used in the mediaeval periods because churches were against mutilation of any kind. There was recently one case, where Sushruta Samhita was referred to fix an impossible case of nose surgery and it turned out to be successful.

Himalayas is the father of Goddess Parvati, wife of Shiva. Shiva lives on the Mount Kailash mountain of the Himalayas. Nobody has ever mounted on it till date. Ganga is the sister of mother Parvati. We have a festival called kaawad yatra every year where they would visit Ganga river, mostly to the very start, that is Gangotri and fetch water so that they can offer it to the local Shivalingam, or symbol of Shiva.

It is said that when your last ashes are mixed with the water of Mother Ganga, you are sure to reach the swarga (heaven).